Sprout Socialhttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/
A Social Media Blog For BusinessTue, 02 Jun 2020 14:39:56 +0000en-US
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1A message to our community: an open letter from Black@Sprouthttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/open-letter-black-at-sprout/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/open-letter-black-at-sprout/#disqus_threadTue, 02 Jun 2020 14:45:25 +0000https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=141058/A note from the authors: Our Black@Sprout Business Resource group wrote this open letter and shared it with our team last week. We’re sharing Read more...

]]>A note from the authors: Our Black@Sprout Business Resource group wrote this open letter and shared it with our team last week. We’re sharing it with you today because we believe this message is important for everyone to hear. One of our values as a company is championing diversity, equity and inclusion. This commitment means we work to build a diverse team, foster an inclusive culture and invest in equity—defined as system-level change—across our organization. It also means that in times like these, we want to use our platform to share our beliefs and encourage allyship within our community.

Dear #TeamSprout,

Our community is deeply impacted by the fact that the death of George Floyd took place at the hands of the Minneapolis police. However, it is not just George Floyd’s death that takes a toll on our community. It is the constant, unjustified deaths of our people at the hands of those who are sworn to protect us and the fatal outcomes when participating in activities that we all should have the freedom to do. This freedom is void for us because of the systemic racism that exists against Black people in this country, and that is what makes the Black experience feel terrifying.

While this letter will not account for all the emotions felt throughout our community, we wanted to share with you how these tragedies impact us, the questions we find ourselves asking, how you can show support and some resources that we can all use to increase our knowledge and participate in the fight against racism.

The impact on our community

We deserve to live. We deserve to be seen. We deserve to be appreciated. We are worthy of those things just as much as anybody else.

The most recent events trigger a series of thoughts and questions: “Here we go again,” “Things will never change,” “Nobody cares but us,” “Why?”, “When does this stop?”, “How many lives will it take?”, “Why is no one listening?”, “Why do we showcase a negative narrative of the person’s life that has been taken?” and “Where are our allies?”.

While we struggle to make sense of our thoughts, conversations with our families and friends about another Black life senselessly taken, and what the future holds, it begins to emotionally overcome some of us. Don’t be surprised to see some changes in our behavior. While we bear the weight of this burden, we put on brave faces. But at the same time, we might carry ourselves differently these days, communicate in a different way or need a break or an afternoon off. The world expects us to operate as if this is normal. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, normal about this.

As we see the unrest across the country, please know that this is a cry for the unheard. A cry for change. While we don’t want violence, we desperately want change. We want our lives to be valued. We want protection. We want what is promised to all of us. Our inalienable right to life and equality.

In the words of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), “we are done dying.” The time for action is now. We can’t wait. The names on your feed and in the media are the only ones you hear about, but believe us when we say there are many more.

We need your support

We cannot move forward without allies. Without each of us standing up against this injustice, we will continue to see George Floyds, Breonna Taylors, Ahmaud Arberys, Philando Castiles, Alton Sterlings, Mike Browns, Sandra Blands, and the list of so many in this scroll of unjustified deaths. It is a beautiful thing to see so many diverse people banding together in Minneapolis because this isn’t a “Black people problem,” this is a problem for all of us.

If you find yourself desensitized by the violence against us, then we implore you to watch, read and understand the depth of the pain that we endure. A fatal, unjustified outcome that could easily happen to one of us, our family members or our friends. In the words of the Minneapolis Mayor, Jacob Frey, “To ignore it, to toss it out would be to ignore the values that we all claim to have, that are all the more important during the time of crisis.” If you aren’t an ally, then you must become one. If you believe in the values of Sprout, then you must be an ally. We urge you all to be allies. There is no such thing as too small when it comes to speaking out against racism and racial injustice. Please do not assume that someone else will take action. We need action from you.

When it comes to supporting us, check on us with compassion, and please listen if we decide to share with you. This is not easy for any of us and the swarm of emotions we’re experiencing takes time to process.

In order to move forward, we need you to do some inner work. We appreciate the conversations that have started in #talk-dei (ed. note: an internal Slack channel where our team discusses topics, initiatives and resources related to diversity, equity and inclusion) and the resources that have been shared. Below, we have compiled a list of timely resources, ways to educate yourself and others, and organizations you can support during this time.

As you learn and hear more, in the spirit of our DEI norms, be okay with experiencing discomfort right now and getting uncomfortable. We understand this discomfort may be new to some of you, but you have to do your part. Change can’t happen unless you do.

As we all move forward, remember that we are still here. Standing tall even in the midst of trial and pain. Carrying with us the hurts of our community and laying them before the world crying out for change. As we stand, we want you there too.

]]>https://sproutsocial.com/insights/open-letter-black-at-sprout/feed/0How to use the Instagram swipe up feature in your Storieshttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-swipe-up/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-swipe-up/#disqus_threadThu, 28 May 2020 18:14:39 +0000https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=140691/If you’re looking to get even more out of your Instagram presence, the Instagram swipe up feature is a great addition to your Instagram Read more...

]]>If you’re looking to get even more out of your Instagram presence, the Instagram swipe up feature is a great addition to your Instagram marketing strategy.

The Instagram Story swipe up allows you to be more tactical with your Stories, leading to even more clicks and conversions.

Let’s talk a bit more about what this feature is and how it works, before diving into how to utilize it.

What is the Instagram swipe up feature?

Marketers know all too well that Instagram doesn’t offer much in the way of adding links to posts. And changing the link in to your bio can be tedious, especially if you’re publishing multiple times a day and wanting to link to different landing pages. But accounts that meet the criteria to add swipe up links to their Instagram Stories have the option to be more versatile.

Instagram swipe up is incredibly useful because it allows businesses to promote products, blog posts and sign up pages. These pages open right in the app for users to explore as well.

When a swipe up link is added to a Story, viewers can simply tap on the arrow at the bottom of their screen or swipe up on the Story to access the link.

Here’s what this looks like on a Sprout Social Instagram Story below.

How to get the Instagram swipe up feature

Remember how I said only accounts that meet certain criteria are able to access the Instagram Story link feature?

Because Instagram wants to keep it exclusive for the time being, they’ve set restrictions on accounts that can access this feature and add it to their Stories.

This means that celebs, public figures and brands that are verified and haven’t crossed that 10,000 follower threshold are still able to access the coveted Instagram swipe up feature.

How to add a link to your Instagram Story

Once you’ve reached the criteria that give you access to the Instagram swipe up feature, the link icon will automatically appear at the top of your stories editor (fourth from right).

Once you tap it, the window that allows you to add a link to your Story pops up. Add any link to your website, whether it’s a blog post, a landing page or a piece of curated content you’re sharing with your audience.

This is also where you input information about brand partnerships if you’re sharing sponsored content. Tagging your business partner adds a “paid partnership with” label to your story, but it can also limit your ability to edit the Story.

Click the + Web Link section, add your URL then tap Done. You can easily clear or edit your link by tapping the link icon again, or move forward and share your Story with your followers.

Get the most use from the Instagram Story link

So you know what it is, how you get access to it and how to add the Instagram swipe up feature to your Stories.

Now let’s talk about various ways you can take advantage of this new feature to link to websites from your Instagram account.

Promote blog posts

Want to promote your recent blog post? Creating a graphic and sharing it on your Instagram Story is a great way to get even more social traction to your content! Just be sure you’re on top of Instagram’s Story dimensions when you create your visuals. Remember that not all mobile devices have the same dimensions, so it’s important to create graphics within the right dimensions.

When you create your graphics, be sure to include relevant visuals to your blog content and keep your imagery on brand.

Using similar fonts and colors to your overall brand helps with brand strength and recognition, especially when users are scrolling aimlessly through Instagram Stories.

Take a look at this example of a blogger sharing a link to a recent post.

Notice how the graphic and text are concise and clear; the blog name is above the image, and below is the title of her blog post and even the CTA “Swipe Up,” which appears above Instagram’s native “See More” to signify a link.

Promote products

Another great way to use the Instagram swipe up feature is by promoting your products. After all, Instagram is a visual platform, so use it to share stunning, professional photos of your products with a direct link to their product page.

Take a look at how clothing boutique DressUp promoted their summer tops on their Instagram Story.

Using one of Instagram’s built-in features, the brand created a collage of their products in their Story and used the swipe up to link to a product category page. They’ve made it easy for viewers to instantly shop after seeing something they like.

You can take this one step further with Instagram shopping and link your products to your Instagram account so users can view a story and make a purchase without ever leaving the app.

Promote virtual events

If you’re putting on a virtual event and you’re trying to generate a larger turnout for it, use the swipe up feature to attract registrants. You probably already have promotional graphics for it, so share your graphics to your Stories and include a link to the registration landing page.

Take a look at this webinar promotional graphic from Zapier. They shared an Instagram post from their feed onto their Story and added a direct swipe up link, making it easier for their followers to sign up for their upcoming webinar.

You can easily share your Instagram posts to your own story by tapping the share icon and selecting your Story. This can be a great way both to add links to Instagram posts and get people who are viewing your Story to click to your feed.

Promote landing pages

Whether you’re linking to a sales or service page or an informational landing page, it’s incredibly important to get it in front of your potential customers’ eyes.

These types of webpages are transactional pages, meaning their purpose is to reel visitors in and get them to sign up or make a purchase.

Take a look at this Instagram story promoting and linking to an online course sales and landing page.

Creating Instagram Story graphics (or videos about a service, or even sharing videos of other users as social proof) to link to landing pages should be a big part of your Instagram Stories strategy.

Promote videos

Whether you recently posted a new video to IGTV, YouTube, Facebook or directly to your website, you can easily increase views by sharing a link on your Instagram Story.

Here’s an example of a user sharing a thumbnail of her recent YouTube video on her Instagram Story. The Story links directly to the video so her Instagram followers can immediately watch it.

Once you unlock the Instagram swipe up feature, you can bring your cross-platform promotional content and strategies to your Stories.

Simply create a graphic in Instagram story dimensions, upload it, add a link and publish. Voila! And now you’re able to send followers from Instagram to a video, another social network or your website.

Promote lead magnets

Trying to grow your email list? Promoting lead magnets and email list signups is another great use of the Instagram Story link.

Or, invest in Instagram Story ads, like this example below, that will add an easy-to-use signup form directly on swipe, rather than a signup page that users have to navigate through.

How to increase swipes

Now that you’re getting ready to take full advantage of the Instagram Story swipe up feature, it’s important to note a few tips that can help you to increase Story clicks to your website and other promotions.

Include a call to action

First, you should include a call to action right in your Story. Whether it’s a video or graphic, you need to call attention to the swipe up link at the bottom of your Story.

Add GIFs/arrows

Instagram Stories have a ton of stickers to choose from, like arrows, GIFs and other visuals that can help draw attention to your swipe up link.

You can add an animated arrow pointing to the link, or you can even find stickers that flash “SWIPE UP” at your viewer so they know there’s more they can access.

Post often

As with any platform, the more consistently you post, the more reach and engagement you’re going to receive. If users watch your Stories often, your brand will appear towards the beginning of their Stories feed.

But if you take a long hiatus from posting Stories, you could lose your place in their feed, losing dedicated viewers and potentially loyal customers.

Once you start working on an Instagram Stories strategy, try to keep up with it so you don’t lose that hard work and viewership.

Start increasing clicks and conversions with the Instagram swipe up feature

Ready to start converting your Instagram followers? Learn even more about the benefits of using an Instagram Business Profile, and how its features can help you grow and promote your business.

]]>https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-swipe-up/feed/0IMG_5832IMG_5833IMG_5834IMG_5838IMG_5839-minIMG_5840-minIMG_5843-minIMG_5844-minIMG_5846-minthe-sorry-girls-swipe-upHow to create, manage and report on social media campaigns in Sprouthttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-campaign-management-with-sprout/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-campaign-management-with-sprout/#disqus_threadThu, 28 May 2020 14:58:16 +0000https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=140947/Social media campaigns are focused and coordinated efforts that generate measurable results across social media platforms. Campaigns are a chance to switch things up, Read more...

]]>Social media campaigns are focused and coordinated efforts that generate measurable results across social media platforms. Campaigns are a chance to switch things up, reach your audience in a new way, create memorable content and make a real impact on top-line business goals.

However, for all the value they can bring, campaigns come with innate challenges. Raise your hand if you’ve ever tried to juggle:

Concepting, creating and scheduling dozens of social media posts across multiple networks

Managing your community and monitoring social for all campaign mentions and engagement opportunities

Soliciting and curating user-generated content

Reporting on your campaign’s performance to your boss, client or other marketers

Optimizing your campaign to make sure your numbers keep growing

Whether you’re a brand marketer running multiple campaigns or an agency marketer managing multiple clients, an easy-to-use, turnkey solution that facilitates collaboration, execution and reporting all in one place can work wonders. We’ve created this guide to show you how to run your smoothest, most successful campaign yet—using Sprout Social.

Set your campaign up for success with a comprehensive publishing suite

Manually logging in and out of native platforms to schedule content can be tedious. Sprout’s intuitive publishing tools help you map out your long-term campaign strategy and schedule content across different profiles and platforms simultaneously. The collaborative calendar is shared with all users in your plan, so marketers, managers, clients and marketing leaders can all view or contribute to your planning efforts

Visually engaging content is an effective way to capture your audience’s attention while delivering information about your brand, product or service. When you’ve invested a lot of time creating beautiful assets to support your campaigns, it’s important to be able to access them with ease as you start scheduling out their content.

Sprout’s Asset Library simplifies asset management, letting you create, organize, edit and publish assets from a central location. This accessibility has become even more important as more people shift to working remotely. Sprout integrates with Dropbox and Google Drive so you can add images or videos to your posts directly from the Compose window. If you feel more secure uploading directly from your computer, you can also easily drag and drop files into the Asset Library.

Social platforms have adjusted their algorithms over the years to serve up more relevant content to users and prioritize paid content. As a result, 45% of consumers now rely on suggestions in their feed and/or use discovery tools to find new accounts to like and follow, compared only 25% using hashtags for the same purpose. While campaign hashtags are still an effective way to encourage engagement among your audience and create a thread of connected content on social, brands also need to embrace other tactics to get eyes on their content.

Including strategic CTAs that drive action and publishing your content at the right time are both crucial to driving authentic engagement and optimizing campaign outcomes. Sprout Social’s patented ViralPost® technology analyzes your audience data to find the times most likely to reach your largest audience and receive real-time engagement updates. Use Optimal Send Times in Compose to schedule with precision and choose the best times to post that are specifically calculated for that profile on that day. Or, configure your Sprout Queue with ViralPost®, an automated approach that schedules your content for you while still optimizing your post times.

Plan tags and tracking now to report more effectively later

Marketers continue to struggle to measure the ever-elusive ROI of social campaigns, but Sprout’s tagging toolset can help. As you compose your content, incorporate a tagging structure that organizes and tracks the success of your marketing campaigns. Each tag should serve a specific purpose. Consider creating tags based on content themes, content types or your goals: for example, awareness, engagement, lead generation and more.

Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa has developed a sophisticated tagging tree that the team uses to categorize every post. The upfront work they put into tagging pays off because they’re able to generate a report tailored for any given campaign or stakeholder, which ultimately fosters more transparent and rewarding relationships.

As you run your campaign, you can also use the tags you’ve created to evaluate and test your content and continue optimizing your campaign. In our recent Sprout Sessions Digital event, speakers shared a number of ideas for how customers have used tags to test in the past.

In addition to message tagging, Sprout users can add URL tracking to links to easily identify social referral traffic and conversions from social campaign posts in Google Analytics. Being intentional about your tagging and URL tracking will help later when it comes time to report your results.

Bring leaders and stakeholders into campaign planning with ease

While a specific campaign may be your main point of focus, your content calendar most likely includes plenty of other posts that are part of your overall social strategy. Remember those tags we talked about? Brands can filter their scheduled content by tag and temporarily hide any posts that don’t relate to their campaign from view. This can be helpful if you’re sharing your calendar with leadership or agency clients who want to focus specifically on upcoming campaign posts and strategy.

Since social campaigns ladder up to larger marketing initiatives, brands often implement an approval process that safeguards brand standards. Sprout’s approval workflows let stakeholders review, comment and give final sign off on scheduled posts. This level of governance ensures that marketing leaders feel informed and confident about how social supports campaign goals.

Optimize campaigns with real-time data and feedback

Social campaigns aren’t something you can just set and forget. Consistent management maximizes impact.

While SMMs won’t need to do a full-blown report on their campaign every day, they should be keeping an eye on performance. If you notice a post performing well right out the gate, you can apply those insights to your future content and potentially enhance your campaign in real-time. Additionally, if a Facebook post is resonating with your audience particularly well, or one of your more essential posts is garnering low impressions, you have the option to boost those posts directly in Sprout. A little paid jolt can make a big difference for your campaign.

Inbound messages can also help you revamp content in real-time. The Sprout Smart Inbox centralizes messages from your audience, providing opportunities to engage with new customers and gauge the reaction to your campaign. To organize your inbox, apply message tags as they come in to categorize and separate campaign feedback, leads and customer support.

Sprout’s Inbox Rules allow Advanced Plan users to create automated systems that categorize and apply tags of your choice to specific inbound messages that meet certain criteria. From there, you can surface specific Inbox Views that show only messages relevant to that topic. For example, create inboxes specific to your campaign, customer service issues, product feedback and more. Based on the rules you establish, you can then set up Automated Alerts to receive notifications about the messages you deem most important.

Inbox Rules came in handy for Indiana University when the school encountered a crisis. The social team created rules to auto-apply tags on the specific incoming messages related to the issue and the university.

“Being able to automate that process so that all of the messages that come in during these situations are channeled into one space lets us analyze messages quickly, make decisions or offer suggestions to leadership about what actions should be taken,” says Norman.

While a lot of inbound messages may relate to customer service issues, there are many other reasons consumers reach out on social. In the latest Sprout Social Index™, we found that 59% of consumers message a brand on social media when they’ve had a great experience.

If someone’s loving your campaign, don’t ignore it. It’s just as important to respond and show your appreciation to those consumers as it is to resolve customer complaints. It can go a long way in building customer loyalty, especially if those consumers are continually engaging with you and your content.

In Sprout, users can view conversation history between your team and contacts. With that context, you can personalize responses and nurture a lasting customer relationship. In the same window, you can add contacts to VIP Lists, which is useful when identifying brand evangelists and potential ambassadors or influencers for your next campaign.

Use social data to inspire confidence in your campaigns

Campaigns are all about the payoff, but only 43% of social marketers use social data to assess campaign performance. There’s a lot to be learned from social data and without it, you can miss out on valuable insights that support top-line goals.

Sprout’s robust analytics and reporting capabilities help you track campaign success and generate reports that inspire confidence, not confusion. If you strategically tagged your campaign content, the Tag Report presents metrics for each tag so you narrow in on metrics like engagements, impressions and clicks.

And if you forgot to tag your messages when you initially scheduled them, don’t worry—you can retroactively apply tags in the Post Performance Report. Rather than apply tags message by message, users with Professional and Advanced plans can tag them in bulk. For instance, if several messages with the campaign hashtag were sent out untagged, use the search feature to bring those posts to the forefront and tag them all at once.

Hone in on the metrics that matter most

If your brand has built a paid strategy for your campaign, your bosses will be especially curious to know how that money was spent. Sprout’s Paid Performance Reports help track performance and inform budget decisions on the fly for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn campaigns. The reports are digestible and focus on the metrics that clients and executives alike will care about most, like cost per conversion, cost per click, total spend and more.

If you’re on the organic side and working with a media buyer or paid social expert, these reports can also help you share insights and collaborate to improve both the paid and organic efforts of your campaign.

And to bring it all home, don’t just tell your clients and executives how your campaign performed, show them. With Sprout’s Premium Analytics customers can tailor a report specific to their campaign with custom reporting options. In addition to the out-of-the-box reports offered, you can build a report from scratch by adding and arranging data and text widgets in a way that tells a story and clearly demonstrates campaign success. Once you’ve drilled into the data that underscores the value of social, share it with your social team and beyond.

Conclusion

Putting it simply, Sprout takes the pain out of campaigns. Dad jokes aside, Sprout can truly help nurture your campaigns, community and company goals.

Sprout removes the busywork from your process, streamlines content creation and simplifies reporting so you can focus more time on optimizing your campaign, tending to your customers and looking forward to your next project.

Try Sprout Social for free with a 30-day trial. Already a customer and need help getting started with custom reports? Find more in-depth how-tos on creating custom reports here.

]]>https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-campaign-management-with-sprout/feed/0Social Spotlight: Visa and how to pivot with empathy during a crisishttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-spotlight-visa/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-spotlight-visa/#disqus_threadWed, 27 May 2020 16:44:57 +0000https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=140926/Welcome to the Social Spotlight, where we dive deep into what we love about a brand’s approach to a specific social campaign. From strategy Read more...

]]>Welcome to the Social Spotlight, where we dive deep into what we love about a brand’s approach to a specific social campaign. From strategy through execution and results, we’ll examine what makes the best brands on social tick — and leave you with some key takeaways to consider for your own brand’s social strategy.

Overview

Brands are in a tough spot right now. Not only are most struggling to determine how to best support customers while also ensuring that their businesses can survive a global economic threat like the current pandemic, but the world’s biggest brands have the added scrutiny of public opinion about how they conduct themselves to worry about. Social has become the primary stage for proving that a brand understands what its audience is experiencing and can adjust its communication with consideration and empathy. And the brands that have the most challenging path to walk are those whose business is most threatened. Financial institutions top that list, but Visa has been able to demonstrate both empathy and optimism by making quick, thoughtful and appropriate adjustments to its social strategy.

What you can learn

1. Pivot your partnerships.

Visa spends a considerable percentage of its overall marketing budget on event sponsorships, the most visible of which is the Olympics. A look back at Visa’s social content from early in 2020 shows a heavy push for its sponsorship, focus on partner athletes and promotion of the event itself. When the IOC announced that it was delaying the 2020 Olympics until at least 2021, Visa had to pivot its strategy and make adjustments to its partnerships with athletes. The result is an emerging content series featuring athletes as they experience the pandemic much like we do–at home and in quarantine.

Getting started: You may not be able to change the financial terms of any sponsorships or partnerships you have, but you may be able to adjust the marketing or content parts of your agreements. Just as you’d change the copy or design of your advertising to match the current conditions, you should reassess your content and paid sponsorship efforts.

2. Reposition your offerings for the current situation. Visa is one of the world’s largest financial services institutions, and its products are used by a huge range of people and businesses To serve such a broad demographic, Visa has an equally wide range of product offerings that it can promote via social. But we all know timeliness is key to relevance, so Visa has chosen to promote the products and services that best meet the rapidly changing needs of business owners, employees and customers in the time of COVID-19.

Getting started: Do your due diligence to understand the biggest challenges for your audience right now–chances are they’re very different than they were six months ago, and potentially even different than six weeks ago. Once you know what they’re struggling with, assess your offerings and align them with the specific needs of your customers in this unique time.

3. Be the community resource the community needs right now. Visa has long supported small businesses with both product offerings and philanthropic support. But the need for resources may have never been greater in the small business community than it is right now, and Visa recognizes that now is the time to step up its efforts through new tools, services and partnerships.

Getting started: What are your most vulnerable customers struggling with right now, and what resources can you offer them to demonstrate not only that you understand their situations, but that you will support them so they will still be there to be your customers when we get through this? It’s understandable that not every brand can create a seven-figure relief fund or a star-studded benefit, but even a well-researched blog post can change the perspective of someone facing extreme uncertainty.

Our communities need help now more than ever. The @Visa Foundation will designate $10 million for immediate emergency relief and $200 million for small and micro businesses, aligning with the Foundation’s long-term focus on women’s economic advancement: https://t.co/ihNsQpZ7Egpic.twitter.com/Tge0NWB1Tx

]]>https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-spotlight-visa/feed/0Why digital literacy matters for marketershttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/digital-literacy/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/digital-literacy/#disqus_threadTue, 26 May 2020 19:31:46 +0000https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=140901/Remote work and safer-at-home orders are shifting digital transformation plans everywhere into warp speed, and marketers are along for the ride. As digital media Read more...

]]>Remote work and safer-at-home orders are shifting digital transformation plans everywhere into warp speed, and marketers are along for the ride. As digital media becomes the primary (or only) customer-facing means of communication for most organizations, digital literacy is more important than ever before.

Digital literacy, also known as media literacy, isn’t a new concept. The discussion around it has increased steadily for decades. In the context of marketing and business, progressions in television, radio and internet-based communications repeatedly demonstrate the advantage held by media-literate brands.

Who would have imagined, for example, that an innovative company like General Electric would face significant business issues and fail to adapt to changing markets? And yet it did, despite leadership in industries like aviation, transportation, healthcare and energy. The fall was at least partly fueled by reverting to manufacturing in 2008 when more digitally literate companies were rising to the recession’s challenge and diversifying their offerings.

What does the challenge of media literacy mean for marketing today? Let’s dig in.

There are different levels of digital literacy, and marketers have to aim high

We’re entering a new digital chapter at an unprecedented pace. To keep up, marketers need to make digital literacy a priority. But what exactly is digital literacy for marketers?

In a nutshell, it’s using technology to create and ingest content, as well as understanding how the technology works and what creators’ motivations are.

Let’s use Facebook as a micro-example. Being Facebook literate on a basic level would include understanding some of the essential elements of how the platform works, including skills such as:

The various reasons why someone might post (connect with friends/family, make political statements, sell a product, etc.)

Being even more Facebook literate might include knowing how to schedule or boost posts, attract followers, create events and/or work with influencers. It may also include knowing things not to do, like spamming comment sections with links to an unrelated product’s landing page.

The more literate a marketer is with the platform, the higher their chances of success and avoiding stalled content. Digital literacy gives marketers a strategic advantage, both over competitors and in the way an audience views their content.

Digital literacy gaps affect messaging

Marketers are far from the only people who benefit from digital literacy. Yet, many people don’t have the tools to acquire it. Some are working to address this. Parents and schools, for example, are increasingly seeking out and demanding digital literacy education. Computer skills classes now go beyond spreadsheets and word processing to include topics like protecting private information online and gauging a source’s credibility, for example.

Still, not everyone takes those classes, and not all those classes cover the platforms marketers use. Until digital literacy is more widespread, some marketers have to do a little extra work to meet their audience where they’re at. A number of government entities have experienced this while increasing digital communications due to COVID-19. Some communications leaders were prepared, while others are still working to find the best ways to clearly share information.

For marketers, transparency is critical to closing digital literacy gaps. At a time when consumer access to information is high, accuracy and honesty are key. The last thing you want is to be perceived as deceptive.

The age of (mis)information is putting on the pressure

While marketing has moved online, so has journalism. Most major news outlets now even have social media pages, with government entities quickly following suit.

These developments, along with other trends in 2020, have serious implications for marketers.

For instance, while marketers may know that an informational article on their website is part of a sales funnel, readers may have trouble spotting the differences between the post and a news article. The marketing content may be high-quality and contain valuable and accurate information, but ending up on a payment page might make them feel misled.

Consumer literacy can vary and leads to misunderstanding, as journalists know.

If you're a reporter retweeting dubious and potentially dangerous health information, "RTs are not endorsements" isn't an adequate form of social media distancing. Err on the side of not endangering your followers.

Especially in the era of COVID-19, vetting information is critical for a strong social strategy. Contributing to the spread of misinformation through a brand’s platform can ignite serious trouble. Customers don’t want conjecture. It’s essential that media literate marketers take the time to understand the full context of what they’re sharing or referencing in brand feeds, whether that’s reviewing the credibility of the source on a news story or understanding the full backstory of a viral meme.

When it comes to internally-produced content, striking the balance between helpfully informative and transparent usually means including clues like clear branding to help audiences identify the type of content they’re looking at and its source. That can help avoid a brand reputation nightmare, and even build trust.

Digital literacy helps everyone delineate authentic content from conspiracy theories, even ones with well-produced the YouTube videos. As media creators and distributors, marketers must take steps to respect their audience’s need for relevant, accurate information.

Even marketers have to keep learning

Consumers aren’t alone in the ongoing effort towards media literacy; marketers are right there with them. With fake or poorly-sourced news appearing in everyone’s feeds today, we all have our work cut out for us when it comes to staying informed.

Even without a worldwide pandemic, complacent marketers can find themselves just as left behind as anyone puzzling through digital media. An attitude of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” towards new social platforms or trends in messaging is tempting when campaigns are running smoothly, but can leave marketers blindsided when things change. You don’t want to be left scrambling to understand a new platform or feature well after your competition has begun successfully using it in their marketing.

Platforms and messaging styles fall out of fashion, and results can dip if an effort isn’t made to stay on top of changes in the social space. Take TikTok, for example. Up until 2018, the platform couldn’t outpace Musical.ly, a lip-syncing video app, in the US. After a merger of the two platforms, however, TikTok suddenly rose in popularity and downloads spiked significantly once stay-at-home orders were issued across the country.

Rather than dismissing rising trends, marketers should investigate them earnestly, as several brands have with TikTok. Digital literacy means making ongoing efforts to understand new platforms and practices. It keeps marketers on their toes—and relevant.

Of course, that doesn’t mean jumping into every trend hoping to ride the wave to the top. Understanding new platforms and practices doesn’t necessarily mean participating if it doesn’t match your brand’s needs. That’s why when it comes to trends, brands must favor relevance over reach. Consider what’s needed right now for your brand and your customers, and let those needs guide decisions.

Increasing digital literacy = improving understanding

One of the best ways to understand digital tools, of course, is to use them. This not only builds familiarity and reveals how the competition presents itself on a platform but also opens up a new perspective: that of the audience.

Seeing things from a customer’s perspective is as old a tactic as secret shoppers and proof copies. That’s because it works. Marketers benefit from using the platforms they work in. Organizations often even hire or tap in-house native users to leverage their digital literacy.

Staying on top of media trends this way keeps marketers at the forefront of customer sentiment and interest. What’s on customers’ minds? What questions are they asking? We can only address known customer needs, and digital media platforms provide a helpful window. By paying enough attention, trendspotting improves marketing content.

Sound like a lot of work? It can be, but tools are available to ease the burden. For example, in the case of social media, social media automation can simplify multi-platform posting. Meanwhile, social listening tools display all marketers need to know about engagement on easy-to-digest dashboards.

This is about more than just knowing your target audience. It’s also knowing what they’re thinking, what struggles they’re experiencing and how their behaviors are changing. With this more granular data, marketers can make more informed decisions for their brand.

Data makes a difference

In order to understand customers, you need data. Fortunately, to say digital marketing platforms today are data-rich is an understatement. Social media, in particular, is ripe with customer information, so much so that social media security is a hot topic for both marketers and national security leaders.

All of this (carefully protected) data, however, drives evaluation and improvement. Consumer literacy may stop at knowing how to use tools and how to tell the difference between a friend’s travel post and a travel agency ad. For effective marketers, it requires a bit more, like knowing how to gather, analyze and present data.

Reporting on marketing efforts helps marketers and others in an organization understand the effectiveness of media campaigns, allowing for even deeper digital literacy and more success. Fortunately, automation and listening tools like the ones mentioned above reduce the time and resources necessary to generate worthwhile reporting.

Adapting in the age of digital literacy

Marketers have always had to be creative; it comes with the job. Marketing in the digital age simply means transferring those skills to the technology available today.

]]>With 2 billion unique users watching 1 billion hours of video every day, YouTube offers an excellent platform to market your business. Add that to the compelling nature of video in marketing and you have a winning combination. In fact, video marketing has helped marketers to increase traffic, generate leads and reduce the number of support calls.

So there’s no doubt that leveraging YouTube will help you achieve all of these goals and more. This post shows you some of the most essential steps for YouTube marketing and how you can get the most out of the network.

1. Create and brand your YouTube channel

If you haven’t already, make sure you start by creating a Brand Account on Google. When you create a Brand Account, you can authorize members of your team t0 manage your YouTube channel; something you won’t be able to do on a personal account.

Ideally, pick a channel name that’s either similar or consistent to your business name so it’s easy to recognize. And don’t forget to upload channel art that aligns with your brand’s visual identity.

2. Understand your audience

Marketing on YouTube is mainly about creating content to reach and engage a target audience. And for that, you need to know what that audience likes. What kind of content do they want from you? When are they most active? Where is your audience mostly based? How often do they expect to get new videos from you? All of this and more will help you craft a winning YouTube marketing strategy.

The YouTube Analytics tab will provide you with valuable insights into your subscriber demographics and watch time. This will help you identify which regions of the world your videos are reaching, what time people are viewing your videos, how old your viewers are and what gender you mostly reach. Use these insights to plan your YouTube content strategy.

You could also take a YouTube survey asking your viewers what they’d like to see from you as Cut did in the following post on their Community tab. They sourced a poll to their audience asking which mother-daughter pair they’d like to see in an upcoming episode. It’s a clever way to use your audience’s input in your content. Additionally, the comments on your videos can also help you understand your audience and further inform your YouTube marketing strategy.

3. Learn from the best

While understanding your audience will give you an idea of what content to create, it won’t necessarily help you get ahead of the competition. For that, you should look directly at your competitors and learn from their YouTube marketing strategies. What are they doing right and how can you replicate that? What mistakes are they making and how can you capitalize on that?

Find your competitors’ channels and watch their most popular and least popular videos. Try to identify what resonates with the audience and what complaints they have about those videos. Beyond judging the content for yourself, you could even go through the comments to see what people are saying. Also, think about the content that you find interesting and informative. Would you watch your competitor’s videos and find the content valuable? Use these insights to inform your YouTube content strategy.

For example, let’s say you’re competing with the following video on designing an abandoned cart email. You can see that there’s no video description, which you can capitalize on by creating a compelling description for your video. Plus, the comment shows someone complaining that there’s no proper intro in the video. Capitalize on this as well by creating intriguing intros on all your videos that call out the real life problem you’re solving for your viewers.

Additionally, go through your competitors’ video descriptions (if any) to identify the keywords they’re using. If you find any that could be relevant to your channel, use them for your YouTube SEO. You could apply the same research strategy on your favorite YouTube channels as well.

4. Nail your YouTube SEO

While marketing on YouTube is mostly about creating quality content, optimizing your videos for visibility is equally important. It won’t matter how entertaining your videos are if people can’t find them in relevant search results. That’s exactly why you should invest your time and effort into YouTube SEO.

At the least, your YouTube marketing efforts should include the basics of YouTube SEO, such as:

Optimizing your titles and descriptions with keywords

In many ways, the YouTube search engine works similar to the Google search engine. It will prioritize high-quality content that’s relevant to the search term. And one of the ways it will determine the content’s relevance in a search is through the terms and phrases in your video titles and descriptions.

For example, see how the top search result for “juggling football” is a video titled “soccer/football juggling tutorial.” It specifies that the tutorial is about juggling in soccer specifically and not about juggling in general, making it relevant to the search. A brief look at the description also shows that they’ve used multiple variations of the keyword there as well.

Use your competitor research from earlier and conduct keyword research to discover the most relevant search terms your target audience is using. Then use these terms seamlessly into your titles and descriptions for a better chance at showing up in the right search results.

Creating eye-catching thumbnails

It’s not enough that your videos show up in relevant searches; you also need people to click on them so YouTube can further determine your content’s relevance. That’s where your video thumbnails enter the picture. Your title may give people an idea of what your video is about, but your thumbnails give them a glimpse of your video quality.

So make sure you use customized thumbnails that instantly catch the eye and compel people to watch your videos. Select an appealing image from your video as the thumbnail, then add graphics, text overlays and filters as needed to make the image pop.

Cross-promoting your videos

Since the number of video views plays a role in YouTube SEO, you should also get viewers to watch as many of your videos as possible. So try cross-promoting relevant and related videos by displaying end screen recommendations at the end of your videos. Here’s an example of Great Big Story recommending related videos within their Around the World playlist series. Make sure the recommended videos lead to a logical progression of content that your user will be interested in, such as a playlist.

Also, you should cross-promote your videos using other social media platforms to get as many views as possible. In some cases, you might even find opportunities to embed your YouTube videos on relevant blog posts. Here’s the same Great Big Story video posted on their Twitter profile:

Great Big Story senior producer Beryl Shereshewsky checks in with seven people in seven different countries who show us how they prepare their perfect cuppa. ☕️

5. Have a consistent publishing schedule

Consistency is the key to YouTube marketing success. Creating and editing quality content takes time, so you may not necessarily be able to publish a video every day. But make sure you have a posting schedule and follow it religiously.

This will give your audience an idea of when they should expect your content and help you engage them more effectively. The more content you publish, the more opportunities for engagement you’re opening up. This could eventually help you gain more visibility in people’s feeds. Plus, having a proper publishing schedule makes it easier for you to plan your content and schedule videos ahead of time.

In fact, you could use the calendar view option on Sprout Social’s YouTube publishing tool to better plan your video content alongside your social content. This will help you visualize your overall or single-network content schedule and understand your post volume across the week or month, so you can seamlessly make necessary adjustments.

6. Offer captions and subtitles in multiple languages

According to YouTube, about two-thirds of a channel’s views will come from outside the home country of the content creator. So even if you hadn’t intended to build an international audience, there’s a good chance your channel already has viewers who speak other languages besides English.

Effective YouTube marketing involves catering to this existing audience and enhancing their experience as well as attracting more viewers who share similar characteristics. This makes it crucial to provide closed captioning and translations of your content. Based on the insights from your YouTube demographics data, find out which countries your viewers come from and prioritize English and other languages accordingly. Also, adding closed captioning assists with making your videos accessible to all viewers.

If you’re worried about the cost of translating your content, note that you don’t necessarily have to spend a dime. YouTube lets you crowdsource translated captions from your fans for free. For this, go to the Creator Studio and turn on community contributions under “Subtitles.”

Keep in mind, you can always provide subtitles or closed captioning with or without timestamps yourself. Just upload a supported transcript file in the Advanced settings of your video options.

7. Partner with influential creators

With hundreds of thousands of loyal fans, influential YouTubers have the power to effectively market your channel and products. Consider partnering with them to amplify your YouTube marketing efforts. Collaborating with YouTube influencers gives you an opportunity to reach a new audience as well as provide some credibility or endorsement behind your products.

The actual approach and campaign type may vary depending on your end goal and your product. Is it brand awareness? Newsletter signups? Or farther down the marketing funnel?

For example, TruAudio partnered with What’s Inside?–an influential YouTube channel with over 6.8 million subscribers–to promote their products. The channel provided viewers with an in-depth look at how the product works and linked to the product homepage in the description.

But if your plan is to promote your YouTube channel or a specific video on your channel, you could also get the influencer to share those relevant links in the description box as well. You might even co-create a video with the influencer and publish it to your channel instead, depending on your goal and approach to YouTube influencer marketing campaigns.

8. Invest in YouTube ads

While proper YouTube SEO can go a long way, solely relying on organic reach won’t get you scalable results. For that, you need paid advertising to reach a highly relevant audience through means other than YouTube search results. Invest in YouTube ads to promote your content and products through other channels and drive more viewers to your channel.

You have the option of running a few different YouTube ad types and expand your reach by keyword or audience. Run a few different paid ad promotions to test which is successful for your goals.

Perfecting your YouTube marketing

The steps outlined in this guide show you some of the essential steps to get started with YouTube marketing. But note that to perfect your efforts, you should consider YouTube marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy instead of a standalone initiative.

For instance, include videos into your overall content strategy to create a perfect balance with other content formats. And add YouTube into your overall social media strategy so you can seamlessly manage it with other platforms.

]]>https://sproutsocial.com/insights/youtube-marketing/feed/0cut videowishpondsoccer jugglingiphonecardsPI_Publishing_Calendar_Week_View_YouTubecaptionswhats insideHow to use emoji in marketing to drive engagementhttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/emoji-marketing/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/emoji-marketing/#disqus_threadThu, 21 May 2020 13:22:45 +0000http://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=78451They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Using images in your marketing campaigns can communicate a lot about what types of Read more...

]]>They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Using images in your marketing campaigns can communicate a lot about what types of emotions you’re trying to convey. These days, you can deliver that same level of emotion with a single keyboard click.

We’re talking about emoji.

Whether your audience is young and hip to the latest internet trends, or are take a more traditional approach, emoji have a place on a variety of marketing channels.

Let’s talk about what emoji are, where they came from, and how to use them in every aspect of your marketing campaigns.

What are emojis?

Even though they gained mainstream popularity within the last decade, Emoji were first created in the 1990s by a Japanese marketing agency. Originally, they were used as a derivation of standard typographic emoticons that were popular on the internet at the time. These images gave personality to the emoticons and added another level of self-expression to online communications. In 2011, Apple made the emoji a permanent part of their iOS 5 keyboard, launching the little faces into the spotlight.

Today there are 1,620 emoji in the iOS keyboard with new ones joining the lineup every year.

Emoji vs. emoticons

The emoticons of the ’90s inspired the idea for emoji but the two words still represent two different sets of characters. You create emoticons by using certain keyboard characters to create a face that adds emotion to the text. Emoticons look like this:

Emoji are small images made up of pixels used to depict a variety of faces, activities and objects. New emoji are designed every year and added to the keyboards of your favorite smartphones.

Emoji add more depth and realism to the emoticons that came before them. Popular emoji range from everything from a kissy face, a slice of pizza, airplanes and more. Emoji can be customized to feature a variety of skin tones, hair colors, and textures.

Why use emoji in marketing?

If you follow a lot of brands on social media, you’ve noticed that more and more of them are using emoji in their messaging and branding. According to a study by WordStream, using an emoji in a Tweet can increase engagement by 25% compared to messages without emoji. Using an emoji in your Facebook posts can increase shares by 33% and interactions with your post by 57%.

Beyond these statistics, emoji can also help to make your brand more relatable, add context to your messaging, and appeal to the emotions of your audience on a deeper level.

Humanize your brand

When your audience trusts your brand, they’re more likely to recommend you to others and become long-term supporters.

Using emoji in your messaging can add an extra level of personality and relatability to your brand. You can humanize your brand and relate to your audience by speaking their language with the emoji they use daily in text messaging, chat and personal social posts..

As an investment bank, Goldman Sachs is not known for having a youthful vibe. But that didn’t stop them from showing off another side of their personality and appealing to a younger audience by sending out a tweet made up almost solely of emoji that tell a narrative on their own. When composing a Tweet like this, try reading your tweet aloud using the emoji names—while emoji can be read by screen readers, an overly long chain of them or use of repetitive ones can make your message harder to understand in that format.

On more professional platforms like LinkedIn, using emoji can help your brand stand out in a sea of text posts.

Rather than using them to communicate, you can create more eye-catching lists, or emphasize your posts and headlines with symbols.

Before sticking a bunch of emoji in your messaging, get to know your key demographic and who it is you’re targeting. While emoji can be a great way to humanize your brand, overdoing it or using emoji that don’t appeal to your audience can also alienate them when you don’t do the proper research.

Better engage your audience

Why do people use emoji to communicate with their friends and family? They’re fun and engaging! Emoji can create a massive boost in engagement for your brand when used correctly.

It’s clear that something about an emoji makes people want to engage–they stand out among text posts and have a friendly, casual appearance. Plus, many social platforms now support searching by emoji so they’re more universal than images and video and let both users and marketers tap into themed conversations, similar to hashtags. Sprout’s own filtering options also let you search and filter by emoji in your Inbox or social listening results.

Push notifications that incorporate emoji can get up to 85% more opens and 9% more conversions than text-only notifications. No matter what channel you’re using, adding the right emoji can boost engagement and lead to a higher conversion rate.

Add context to your content

Using emoji in your marketing copy can also add extra context to your messaging. In the same way that an exclamation point can change the tone communicated by your message, adding an emoji can convey emotions that you can’t do with text alone. Social media emojis won’t replace good copy, but the two can work together to add more depth and meaning to your words.

On platforms like Twitter, where you have a limited character count, using emoji can add extra context and emotion to your message when you can’t use extra words. Again, consider audiences using screen readers when composing Tweets like this–after testing in a screen reader or by reading the emoji names aloud, you may want to add additional context using text for clarity.

Tips for using emoji effectively in marketing

You might be eager to rewrite all of your messaging to include emoji, but it’s important to understand your audience to make sure you’re approaching emoji use in the right way. Your audience demographics will play a huge role in how and when you should use marketing emoji in your campaigns. Demographics will also impact the types of emoji that perform well with your target audience. Get to know your target audience through research and analytics and be sure your emoji-enhanced message matches up with what they like to see on social before using emoji for their own sake.

The marketing channels you use will also impact your use of emoji. Formatting like spacing or line returns can create variation in how posts display between mobile and desktop. Plus, different mobile families have their own display style for emoji, meaning the same emoji could have different connotations when viewed on different devices. Test and preview to be sure your message comes across the way you want and without display errors on every device and platform.

Emoji on social media

Emoji and social media complement each other perfectly. People use emoji every day to spice up their social media content and interact with their friends’ posts. There’s no reason your brand can’t do the same thing. When incorporating emoji in your social media posts, do so intentionally and with engagement in mind.

Use emoji as a way to add extra context to your messaging, or to add emphasis to the text in your post.

A post shared by Milk Makeup (@milkmakeup) on May 3, 2020 at 3:07pm PDT

Asking your followers to interact with your post using an emoji is an easy way to encourage engagement. It can be as simple as asking your followers to agree or disagree with a statement using the 👍🏼 or 👎🏼 emoji. You can also ask a more open-ended question, like “what’s your favorite animal? 🐶🐱🐸🐴🦉” and let them use emoji to get creative with their response.

This works exceptionally well on apps that have predominantly mobile use like Facebook and Instagram, where users have quick access to their emoji keyboard.

Facebook believes in the power of emoji so much that it created its own emoji system, called reactions, to promote engagement. These are even quicker for your audience than typing in an emoji, since you can react with these custom icon with one tap or click, just as you would to Like a post.

Using emoji in your social media posts will drive engagement on its own. Asking your followers to interact with your post in a fun and creative way will boost that engagement even more.

Emoji in email marketing

Emoji aren’t exclusively reserved for public-facing channels like social media, even though it’s more prevalent on those channels. Incorporating emoji into your email marketing campaigns has shown an increase in engagement and open rates as well.

When using emoji in your email marketing, use them to emphasize a particular point, but don’t use emoji to replace text. Different email providers might display emoji differently so it’s important not to rely on emoji to get your message across. Some subscribers might be using an email provider that doesn’t support emoji as well as others. Your message may end up lost in translation if it relies too heavily on the emoji. Always test your emails to see how they look in different browsers and with providers to be on the safe side.

Emoji in paid social advertising

Just as with your social media posts, using emoji in your paid ads can increase engagement for your ads.

Adespresso wanted to test the theory that Facebook Ads with emoji received a higher click-through rate than those without. To test this, it created two ads. Everything about the ads was identical except that one ad featured an emoji in the headline.

At Sprout, we also saw positive results for using emoji in our own LinkedIn advertising. Out of two ad variations using similar copy, the one using emoji brought in 84% of all downloads on the linked content, and it had a 400% lower cost per lead than the variation without emoji.

Using emoji in your paid advertising campaigns should support your message and align with your brand voice. If you don’t use emoji anywhere else in your marketing message, then it might not be the right time to start using them in your paid advertising. Instead, start by weaving them into your organic message so that your paid posts feel natural and fit with your brand voice.

Conclusion

Before adding emoji to your marketing strategy, ask yourself if it aligns with the tone of your brand. Also, make sure that you do the research to find out the meanings of different emoji before you use them. The last thing you want is to advertise healthy produce only to find out the emoji you chose has an entirely different meaning on the internet.

It’s important to understand who your audience is, to know how they’ll respond to emoji marketing. Just because you see other brands using emoji doesn’t mean that the same strategy will work for you. Learn about where your audience is most active, and how they engage with your existing posts. That information can help you figure out an emoji marketing strategy that makes sense for you. Check out our free social media toolkit to learn more about how you can engage with your audience on social media and which platforms will work best for your brand.

]]>https://sproutsocial.com/insights/emoji-marketing/feed/0emoticonsemoji_keyboardlinkedin-emojisemoji-listening-screenfacebook-reactionsemail_subject_line_emojisFB_ad_ab_test_emojisScreen Shot 2020-05-19 at 2.17.06 PMHow to build a seamless social media approval processhttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-approval/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-approval/#disqus_threadWed, 20 May 2020 18:39:49 +0000https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=140388/Reality check: social media is rarely a “solo act” for businesses today. From content creation to distribution and beyond, collaboration is key to any Read more...

]]>Reality check: social media is rarely a “solo act” for businesses today.

From content creation to distribution and beyond, collaboration is key to any successful social campaign.

For example, who’s optimizing your social content? Who’s responsible for scheduling? Who has the “final word” on what gets published?

But while teamwork is critical for marketers today, getting everyone on the same page can be a headache. In fact, publishing content is cited among the top challenges marketers according to the most recent Sprout Social Index.

That’s exactly why you need to put together a social media approval process.

And in this guide, we’ll highlight how to create a workflow that brings your team together and makes them more efficient, too.

6 steps to putting together social media approval workflow

Keep in mind that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to your approval process.

Thankfully, you have the freedom to build your own based on the size of your team.

Below we’ve broken down the key steps to a content approval workflow that’s fair game for agencies, massive marketing teams and anyone in-between.

1. Assemble your team and determine your decision-makers

First thing’s first: figuring out the key players in your content workflow.

From fine-tuning your messaging to making sure that your posts are optimized, there are a variety of people responsible for the moving pieces of your social presence.

For example, your team might include any combination of the following:

Social media and community managers

Content creators, designers and copywriters

C-level executives

Team members from other departments (think: sales)

With a team collaboration tool like Sprout Social, you can define these clearly. Want to add someone to your social squad? Want to include someone whose sole job is giving posts their “green light?” No matter how big or small your team might be, Sprout allows you to designate authors and workflows that keep your content moving.

Defining roles is a key step in the approval process.

In short, you need to decide who’s involved in your social media approval process to, well, approve things. You likewise need to decide who has permission to upload content and make revisions.

In terms of how many people should be included as part of your social media approval workflow, we recommend keeping it on the smaller side. Doing so can help avoid bottlenecks and ensure that content moves from person to person in a timely manner. As a team, decide who really needs to see your content before it gets published.

2. Organize your social assets and deliverables

Putting together a social message might seem pretty straightforward.

However, consider the decision-making and discussion that goes into the following:

Crafting on-brand social captions

Picking photos and videos for any given social post

Providing links to relevant promotions and pages

Responding to customer questions and concerns

And when you’re a business that’s interacting with hundreds or thousands of customers, organizing these moving pieces is a must-do.

That’s where tools like Sprout’s asset library come in handy. Rather than scramble for responses to second-guess where a particular photo or piece of content is, your team can access them in one place.

Beyond creatives, Sprout also allows you to save common replies to customer questions and concerns. This allows you to address concerns quickly and without having to freestyle or risk pointing customers in the wrong direction.

3. Establish a social media approval timeline

One of the biggest benefits of establishing a content workflow is not having to scramble for content.

Ideally, your social media approval process should enable you to stick to a specific schedule.

Not only should you have a designated timeline for posts (think: how many per day or week), but also how long it takes for them to get approved. Doing so is especially important when you’re running social media campaigns that are time-sensitive.

For example, you might expect a post to be approved within 24 or 48 hours after it’s been submitted for publication. This gives your team members a bit of breathing room in terms of their schedule but also ensures that they take action in a timely manner.

Sprout’s publishing calendar provides a birds-eye view of your content calendar (by day, week and month) at any given time. This gives everyone on your social team the ability to understand what’s up for publication and what still needs approval.

4. Keep your brand voice consistent with a style guide

The more collaborators you have working on your content workflow, the more important it is to pay attention to your brand voice.

Think about it. As a message moves from one person to the next, that person in the workflow has the opportunity to put their creative “stamp” on it.

You don’t want your brand’s tone to get lost in the process, though. For example, it’d be jarring for a traditional “serious” brand to go all-in on memes out of nowhere.

This speaks to the importance of having a style guide that you can point to. Highlighting your brand’s voice and values, such a document can clue team members as to what your brand is all about. This makes it easier to onboard new members of your social team or third-party collaborators who might not be familiar with your business.

5. Don’t forget about optimization

If you’re going through the effort of creating a social media approval process, you’re obviously concerned about your content’s reach.

And so you can’t forget about optimizing each post based on each network it’s being published to.

Between character limits and audience demographics, posts on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook each have totally different best practices and opportunities for optimization.

Prior to hitting publish, make sure each post is optimized accordingly. For example, Sprout’s hashtag analytics point to popular and relevant tags for your content no matter where it’s being posted.

6. Stick to a publishing and approval schedule

The final piece to your approval workflow is publication. No brainer, right?

But how do you decide when your content gets published? Just like you have a timeline for approval, you should similarly stick to a timeline for publishing and scheduling your content.

This represents a win-win for your team and followers alike. You get into a rhythm and routine of approval as you regularly create and publish content for your customers. Nice, right?

Consistency counts on social media. With Sprout, you can plan out your content based on specific timing or use features like ViralPost to publish when your followers are most engaged.

What are the benefits of building a social media approval process?

Hey, fair question.

Establishing a social media approval process should be a priority for marketers today. That said, doing so does involve an initial investment of your time.

The investment is totally worthwhile in the long-run, though. Here’s a quick rundown of how having a content approval workflow ultimately benefits your business.

Less notification clutter and chaos for marketers

Anything you can do to make your life easier as a marketer is a huge plus.

This means not having to drown in Slack notifications or sift endlessly through back-and-forth email chains to publish social content.

By using a tool like Sprout, all of your social-related communication is front-and-center in one place. This ensures visibility and fewer chances for messages to get overlooked or buried by your spam folder.

The ability to track your tasks, to-dos and approvals means no second-guessing when it comes to “what’s next” with your social campaigns.

Win back valuable time in your schedule

Piggybacking on the point above, working within a single platform for social media approval and publishing is a huge time-saver.

From Facebook to Instagram and beyond, all of your creatives are consolidated. Rather than bounce between each individual network, Sprout allows you to manage all of your social campaigns regardless of where you’re publishing to.

Avoid needless mistakes and damage control

This is a big one.

If you want to avoid going into crisis management mode, you need a social media approval process.

When multiple people on your team have the opportunity to serve as a second set of eyes on your content, you’re more likely to avoid needless mistakes such as:

Broken links

Insensitive or off-brand Tweets or posts

Misinformation

Mistimed promotions

All of the above can do damage to your brand reputation and bottom line. With a defined approval process, it’s much easier to catch these mistakes and nip them in the bud.

Accountability for your social media efforts

Businesses rightfully want to hold their social teams accountable for their work.

From justifying your social media budget to highlighting individual contributions to campaigns, tracking your approval process is critical. Managers should be able to understand how marketers collaborate and who’s doing what in terms of their roles.

Tools like Sprout track the social media approval process from Point A to Point B. This includes not only who’s uploading content and moving the workflow along, but also how that content performs after-the-fact.

The point of a social media approval process is to boost your team’s efficiency and ensure that the content you’re creating is right for your customers. Monitoring and assessing your workflow allows you to see how individual members of your team contribute to that effort.

Align your business’ goals

Especially with the rise of remote and distributed teams, collaboration is an expectation for teams today.

Part of working together means establishing goals. With a social media approval process, you can bring outside teams into the fold to provide input and insight to improve your campaigns.

For example, it’s well-documented that alignment between sales and marketing produces better results from both. Rather than silo social off from the rest of your business, consider integrating departments and decision-makers to align your campaigns with your business’ goals.

And with that, we wrap up our guide!

What does your social media approval process look like?

Listen: marketers can’t just “wing it” anymore.

With a defined social media approval workflow, you essentially empower your business to work as a team to produce the best social content possible. Doing so also means avoiding needless mistakes and saving serious time.

The tips above and tools like Sprout are key to making it happen. If you’re interested in what our platform can do to streamline your social marketing efforts, request a demo today and see for yourself!

]]>https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-approval/feed/0Sprout Authors and Workflowsnew post approvalSprout Social Asset Library allows you to curate approved imagery and messages for useapproval calendar hoverPI_Analytics_Instagram_Business_Profiles_HashtagsPI_Publishing_Calendar_Week_Compose_Schedule_All_NetworksPI_Global_Notificationsasset library activityWhat’s next? 10 actions every social marketer needs to take todayhttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/sprout-sessions-2020-takeaways/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/sprout-sessions-2020-takeaways/#disqus_threadMon, 18 May 2020 15:00:22 +0000https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=140581/Pivot, iterate, adapt. Marketers all around the world have had to embrace these actions as they learn about what’s next for their brands and Read more...

]]>Pivot, iterate, adapt. Marketers all around the world have had to embrace these actions as they learn about what’s next for their brands and careers.

And while the future is uncertain, there’s one thing we know to be true: we’re stronger when we work together. That sentiment is what our Sprout Sessions event series is all about.

We planned Sprout Sessions as a multi-city series of live events, but we too had to pivot, iterate and adapt. For 2020, Sprout Sessions became a digital event that we could organize remotely, and we couldn’t be happier with the results! More than 3,200 social marketers spent a full day connecting and learning from one another about the power of social data, trends and tactics to propel their strategies, and careers, forward.

Couldn’t attend the event? Keep reading for an exclusive look at our top 10 takeaways and how to access each session on demand for more learning. Or, find our on-demand videos here:

1. Approach limitation as an avenue for innovation

With the rise of social distancing and shelter in place laws, people are seeking out new ways to connect. Those who’ve been successful at facilitating this connection are able to view this limitation as an opportunity to get creative.

Speakers throughout the day, including Sprout’s CMO, Jamie Gilpin, and BCW’s SVP of Digital Innovation, Matt Kelly, agree that success comes from finding creative ways to differentiate your brand from the rest. Times of uncertainty provide room for innovation and it’s important to view your limitations, no matter how big or small, as challenges that can be worked through by finding other means to create connection.

2. Use social listening to better understand your audience

If you attended Sprout Sessions Digital, this takeaway will come as no surprise. Session after session we heard first-hand from brands about the critical role social listening plays in informing your strategy. While many businesses have closed their physical doors to the public, there’s one door that remains open: social media.

While monitoring is a great way to keep track of mentions and messages to your brand, social listening allows you to go one step further by keeping a pulse on the broader conversations at hand. Understanding how people feel about your product, service or industry allows you to stay ahead of trends and give your audiences what they need before they have to ask for it.

Don’t ask: “how do we talk about this?” Ask: “how do consumers talk about this?” 👂#SproutSessions

Solutions Engineer, Jill Florence, led us through a master class to explore how social listening can help brands adapt to today’s climate, measure success and respond to their audiences with agility. The biggest takeaway from her session is to remember that listening is an iterative process. As our world continues to change, so should your listening queries. Revisit your topics often and refine them to help you understand what worked before, what is working today and what will work next.

3. Find the story in the data and share it far and wide

Director of Marketing Technology at VERB Interactive, Erin Fitzgerald, said it best:

Spending time analyzing numbers does not make you a data-driven company, but rather, making decisions based on the data and sharing those insights internally does.

Erin Fitzgerald
Director of Marketing Technology, VERB Interactive

No matter what industry you’re in, social data is a valuable resource that can inform multiple parts of your business, from sales to customer service to research and development. As you analyze your data, work to uncover the story the numbers are telling you and share those insights across your organization. Our biggest takeaway here is two-fold: align with leadership on which metrics matter to define success, and always prepare your reports as if they’ll be forwarded to the C-suite.

4. Test your strategy & iterate frequently

There’s no time like the present to take a quick inventory of how your social strategy is performing! As people’s feelings and behaviors change by the day, social media testing is an essential step to ensuring your content is hitting the right mark. With so many variables to test, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. With so much data at your fingertips, our top takeaway here is to start small and scale your efforts from there.

Don’t be afraid to take risks and test out new ideas, whether that’s testing the use of emojis or different CTAs. Above all, foster an environment that allows for free-flowing ideas. Be open to the results (even if they’re not what you expected) to inform your tactics further or pivot entirely.

5. Be an observer of the world

As a social professional, you’re on the front lines for your brand, interacting every day with customers and new audiences alike. It’s your job to be the voice of your brand while providing timely and relevant information to your audience, which often requires you to be well-rounded on topics that may or may not directly relate to your industry. Immersing yourself in content from different brands, media outlets and platforms will give you fresh inspiration for your own brand’s strategy. It will also highlight new skills your team can build in order to tell stories more creatively on social.

This especially rings true for smaller social teams of one or two people. In fact, prAna’s Social Media Lead, Brittany Sheppard, attributes her team’s success to their ability to adapt and learn new skills quickly, such as learning how to operate a camera or use video editing software. Our takeaway here is to observe the world around you and identify skills that will help take your team’s efforts up a notch.

6. Tap the authenticity of live video

The demand for video has skyrocketed. According to data from our 2020 Index, 50% of consumers prefer to engage with video content, and multiple speakers throughout the day noted that live video is what their audiences want most.

Known for their viral penguin videos, Shedd Aquarium has used video content to help take people out of their living rooms and into an experience that closely mimics being at the actual museum.

“The shift to raw video is one that is here to stay,” said their Social Media and Content Manager, Carly Hill. “One thing we’ve seen through all of this is that people are expressing gratitude for how our videos are helping them get through the day. We’ll continue to use video to give our audience the educational content they want even as things start to normalize again.”

Our biggest takeaway here is make do with what you have—you don’t need a full production team to create videos that provide value and inspire people to take action.

Loved hearing how the social team at @shedd_aquarium has utilized video to provide an educational escape for their guests during quarantine. Shows that video doesn't need to be polished– audiences are happy with quick authentic videos. #SproutSessionshttps://t.co/zPNSKxggB7

7. Optimize your strategy for digital

Our new world has highlighted the important role social plays in a brand’s success, not only in marketing but across the entire customer journey. Delivery services and online shopping portals are consumers’ new normal—and that’s what they will expect from brands even after businesses are fully open again. We’ve seen just how quickly buyer behavior can transform, and brands should expect to see this change stick around for the long run.

Businesses from all industries, not just food services or consumer goods, should anticipate a demand for online services from here on out. Ensure every touchpoint with your brand is exceptional in order to stand out as a true differentiator in what Dakota Kendall, Social Media Marketing Manager at Humm Kombucha, calls the “sea of sameness.”

8. Prioritize customer care

In order to provide exceptional customer experience, you must equip your customer-facing teams with the tools and resources they need to handle all inbound inquiries. After all, 40% of consumers expect brands to respond within the first hour of reaching out on social media, while 79% expect a response in the first 24 hours.

As more people turn to social for answers, teams will need to be structured and staffed to respond in a timely and empathetic manner. Use your social channels to provide ongoing support and help customers navigate any less than optimal experiences. During a time when so much is uncertain, our response and how we treat our customers is one thing we can control.

Loved @SarahCUnleashed's suggestion of an "empathy sandwich" saved response to customers that can be tailored.

❤️Lead with empathy- "We're so sorry to hear that"🔁Restate the station✅Answer the question❤️Close with empathy- "We hope that this helps"#SproutSessions

9. Double-down on your value

As the world works to regain control of the economy, unemployment is increasing and people are more value conscious than ever before. As marketers, we must embrace that consumer pressure on value is going to be a permanent expectation.

There are all these opportunities for brands to inform and support their audiences as long as they’re leaning on messages that are empathic, socially responsible and thoughtful.

Stephanie Prager
Head of Global Business Partners, Twitter

Where can your brand provide the most value in our current situation and how will you continue that momentum in the long term? Asking these questions allows you to thoughtfully plan for what’s next while addressing how you can support your audience today. Prioritize relevant content and use social data to understand what your audience needs, and if your brand has a place to chime in on the conversation.

10. Humanize your brand

Now more than ever, brands need to demonstrate their human sides. The way you support your customers to help ease their challenges right now will make a memorable impact. Even if you aren’t quite sure what to say, be open to the idea of joining conversations with your community to drive connection and illustrate your compassion.

At the end of the day, we’re all trying our best to do our jobs and balance our personal lives. Attaching that lens of empathy on everything you do will help you push through, make the lives of your customers a little brighter and create long-term loyalty.

We hope you enjoyed this look at the takeaways from Sprout Sessions Digital 2020, and we encourage you to share what you think with us on social! If you’re a Sprout Social customer, you can access recordings of each session in the Learning Portal. Or, register to watch recordings of the sessions below:

]]>https://sproutsocial.com/insights/sprout-sessions-2020-takeaways/feed/0Screen Shot 2020-05-15 at 2.53.26 PMScreen Shot 2020-05-15 at 2.58.37 PMScreen Shot 2020-05-15 at 3.45.57 PMScreen Shot 2020-05-15 at 3.54.23 PMA look ahead: Examining the shifts in the COVID-19 conversationhttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/covid-19-industry-breakdown/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/covid-19-industry-breakdown/#disqus_threadMon, 18 May 2020 14:00:32 +0000https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=140350/For brands and consumers alike, a return to normal is unlikely to occur any time soon. As of May 5, there are over 3.5 Read more...

]]>For brands and consumers alike, a return to normal is unlikely to occur any time soon. As of May 5, there are over 3.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide and few countries (if any) are prepared to return to business as usual.

But even as COVID-19 continues to ravage countries all over the world, how people are talking about the crisis is changing. People are anxious to return to their normal lives and conversations around when the lockdowns will end are gaining traction on social. In Italy, mayors are taking to Twitter to lambast civilians disobeying stay-at-home orders; and in states like Wisconsin and Michigan, people are taking to the streets to protest extended quarantine policies.

Marketers have already adjusted their social strategies in response to COVID-19. Now, they find themselves having to reevaluate and readjust once more as consumer behaviors and conversations evolve. But with the majority of the world still under lockdown and people growing increasingly restless, what are marketers to do?

To help answer these questions and more, we dove once more into Sprout Social’s Featured Listening Topic to better understand people’s behaviors and how certain industries continue to navigate this pandemic.

From #StayAtHome to #EndTheLockdown

Lockdown fatigue is on the rise

At the beginning of the year, Twitter was filled with conversations related to staying home and COVID-19 virus. But from March to April, the topic volume around COVID-19 dropped 39% even though the number of confirmed cases more than doubled from one million to 2.7 million.

Around the same time, the conversation around testing kits and vaccines shifted. Data from the Sprout Social Featured Listening topic reveals discussion around vaccines hit a message volume high around mid-March before falling around the beginning of April.

But after several weeks of quarantine and stay-at-home orders, people are growing increasingly restless to return to their normal lives. The beginning of April saw social conversations around ending the lockdown gain steam, growing 268% from March to April. Additionally, engagements in “end the lockdown” conversations increased by 353% from March to April, with message volume peaking on April 21, the same day several states announced their plans to reopen.

Not everyone is ready to reopen

Despite an increase in lockdown fatigue, people remain conflicted about the idea of states reopening. We noticed a 7% decrease in positive sentiment surrounding “end the lockdown” conversations once states began to relax their guidelines and the usage of the hashtag #StayHome increased by 21%.

These conversations became even more emotionally charged when we looked at what was happening at a state-by-state level in the US. Adding the keyword “state” to the “end the lockdown” conversation saw a 483% increase in negative sentiment and a 456% increase in messages during the month of April. Conversations around reopening are likely to take center stage as states like Florida and Texas let their stay-at-home orders expire.

Texas is “opening” tomorrow and we just had our highest day of #COVID19 cases

How three industries are responding to COVID-19

Every industry has had to adjust its operations in the face of this pandemic. Restaurants have pivoted to curbside pick-up and takeout orders only, while those in the fitness industry have switched to online training models.

In the following section, we’ll take a closer look at how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted three different industries and how brands have responded.

Higher Education

From January to March, higher education generated 8.4 million mentions, with conversation volume peaking around March 12 as universities across the country announced campus closures and students aired their concerns over being kicked off campus on such short notice.

Northwestern will be extending Spring Break by one week, and when classes resume on April 4, they will be conducted remotely for at least three weeks. For the latest information and resources, please visit: https://t.co/MjXzd1T8Uhpic.twitter.com/9atHTSi2EE

Harvard just gave students 5 days to pack all of their things, move out, and go home. many can't go home because of costs and travel restrictions, and they've provided no guidance. and we're expected to go to class for the rest of this week.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the top keywords used when discussing COVID-19 and higher education was “online,” as students and faculty alike navigate virtual classrooms together. For graduating seniors especially, recent conversations have centered around cancelled graduations and the move to online ceremonies.

UCLA’s College commencement and all campus graduation ceremonies will be virtual this year, as we work to limit the spread of #COVIDー19 and protect our family and friends who would have joined us. Please remember: the day does not define the journey.https://t.co/sXLi3JVafZ

In response, brands and high-profile celebrities are taking matters into their own hands to celebrate young graduates. YouTube is hosting a graduation livestream with commencement speakers including Barack and Michelle Obama and Lady Gaga, while beer brand Natural Light plans to host its own commencement event on Facebook Live.

Higher education garnered over 14.6 million mentions across 3.5 million unique authors through mid-May of 2020.

The top keywords used when discussing COVID-19 and higher education include “online,” “university,” “people,” “college,” “students,” and “time.”

Healthcare

Few industries have been hit harder by the virus than the healthcare industry. From January to April, there were over 69.7 million conversations around healthcare and COVID-19 by 12.2 million unique authors in Sprout’s Featured Listener.

While overall sentiment skews positive, much of the negative conversations around healthcare focus on the challenges healthcare professionals face. Thirty-five percent of the healthcare conversation is negative, with topics like slowing the spread and the sacrifices of healthcare workers attracting the most engagement.

Thank you everyone for your incredible messages of support and encouragement.♥️

Many of you asked what it was like in the ER right now. I want to share a bit with you. Please RT:

A Day in the Life of an ER Doc – A Brief Dispatch from the #COVID19 Frontline:

On a more positive note, brands are taking to social media to demonstrate their support and gratitude for healthcare workers around the world. McDonald’s, inspired by New Yorkers who applaud healthcare workers every evening, has Tweets with the clapping hand emoji scheduled to send every night at 7pm.

Prominent celebrities have also joined in on the virtual celebrations. Athletes like Wayne Gretzky and Donovan Mitchell are sharing photos of their jerseys with their names replaced with that of a doctor or nurse on their social channels using the hashtag #TheRealHeroes. Beloved Red Sox player David Ortiz has teamed up with local Boston organizations to donate food and other essentials to first responders.

Day 3‼️ I kno that the Boston Fire Department work so hard man…I wanted to make sure that they hydrated and got the tools to help them recover… so my friends at @O4Oxigen water donated 3,000 bottles to the Boston Fire Department!! Thank a first responder today #ThankYourHeroespic.twitter.com/KcfOTjSNOo

In addition to recognizing healthcare workers by name, several brands are using their social platforms to give back to doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals. PUMA, for example, donated over 20,000 pairs of sneakers to healthcare workers while EOS donated over 100,000 hand creams to New York hospital workers. And popular coffee chain Dunkin’ Donuts recently shared their give-back initiative providing free coffee and donuts to doctors and nurses.

In honor of #NationalNursesDay, we’re giving a FREE Medium Hot or Iced Coffee & a Donut to all nurses & healthcare professionals today, May 6th at participating Dunkin’ locations, no ID required. ☕️🍩 Thank you to the brave nurses protecting all of us. ❤️👏 pic.twitter.com/myY0O77kPG

Conversations around healthcare and COVID-19 generated 69.7 million mentions and over 1.7 trillion social impressions from 1/1/20-5/13/20.

Healthcare mentions spiked in mid-March as the discussion around testing began to increase, with the words “test,” “testing,” and “test” mentioned 179,000 times on March 13.

Retail

With consumers still stuck at home, the demand for online shopping and delivery services is higher than ever before. From January to mid-May, the conversation around retail generated over 6.1 million social mentions across 2.6 million unique authors in Sprout Listening’s Featured Topic. Retail social mentions then hit a high of 370,150 messages on March 15 as major retailers like Nike and Starbucks announced the indefinite closure of their brick and mortar stores.

Another factor to consider when examining the conversation around retail is the treatment of essential workers. On April 12, we noticed a significant dip in overall sentiment as retail workers took to social to share their concerns about working at essential businesses, like grocery stores, during the pandemic.

Please don’t complain to us that a store you went to asked you to wear a mask.

Our coworkers have died from COVID-19. An unhinged desire to express “individual liberty” is not more important than our lives.

As states increasingly look to lift stay-at-home orders, retailers are also exploring options to safely reopen their doors to customers. Gap, Macy’s and Nordstrom are just a few major retailers with plans to reopen their stores by the end of May while Starbucks in the UK announced its phased reopening beginning May 14.

In line with the latest government guidance, we’re working to reopen our stores in a safe and responsible way. From 14th May, we’ll begin a phased reopening across Britain, beginning with Drive Thru locations and select takeaway-only stores. Find out more https://t.co/y2gtdevcWjpic.twitter.com/70lOQUdRFv

Conversations around retail and COVID-19 peaked with 660.3k mentions between 3/14/20-3/15/20 as non-essential businesses announced temporary closures and reduced business hours.

The top hashtags most frequently used when discussing COVID-19 and retail included #StayAtHome, #Lockdown, #ecommerce and #SocialDistancing.

From March to April, the overall volume of retail conversations on social dropped 50% as people adjusted to the new retail normal.

The COVID-19 conversation remains fluid

Listening data reveals COVID-19 conversations are on the decline, but the fact remains that the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down. And as businesses toy with the idea of loosening their restrictions, new challenges will emerge that brands need to be prepared to face head on. With so much uncertainty still ahead, here are two things all brands should consider:

Stay agile. As much as we’d all like to resume our daily lives, the reality is COVID-19 is sticking around for the long run and the situation can turn on a dime. For brands, maintaining a sense of agility is crucial for surviving this pandemic. Are you able to respond to an overnight shift in consumer behaviors? While COVID-19 conversations are on the decline, is your brand ready for the new challenges that accompany plans to reopen for business? In situations where there is no rulebook on what to do next, brands need to be agile enough to manage and adapt to unexpected change at a moment’s notice.

Keep an eye on state-level conversations. With talks of reopening gaining steam, brands need to pay close attention to what’s happening at the state-by-state level and what their customers are saying. If reopening is in your near future, what precautions are you taking to address some of the concerns of your customers? Or what backup plans do you have in place if you decide not to reopen? Make sure you’re localizing your messages as state plans to reopen take center stage and keeping your customers up to date on the latest happenings for your business.